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You're already farther than most people here, then.
Yeah, it's good, but Intolerance made just one year later is his best.

All good to great films. There's a certain interest in quasi-fascistic, tyrannical, or murderous (maybe even supernatural) power that I see throughout these movies.

The Element of Crime is my favorite of his, I believe.
Mamma Roma or Teorema.
Suspiria, I think, but I've seen it three times and when I tried watching it for the forth time recently I just couldn't. I know this film too well. I wouldn't mind rewatching The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Tenebre - the two runners-up in my personal ranking of his films.
Four Nights of a Dreamer is his best. Au hasard Balthazar is only very good. I watched it twice to make sure. :P
Oshima is a master with at least a dozen masterpieces to his name. Hard to pick my favorite but one of these three for sure: Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, The Ceremony, and The Man Who Left His Will on Film.
That's quite a binge. I've seen 35 Bergmans, a chunk of them 10 or more years ago. One of the all-time greats, indeed.

Have you seen the only film he directed? Patriotism, which is obviously based on his short story. I read the story and was elated by the beauty of the language Mishima uses. I think his film adaptation transforms this beauty into images quite well. Of course, the thing he's romanticizing is questionable, to say the least, but there's something in our reptile brains that crave this kind of art.
Sounds good. Recommend me some stuff.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

So many things here. haha

I like Intolerance a lot (the fact that the movie was at least partly made as an act of extremely high effort trolling is also great). I think it probably would have made a much bigger impression on me if I had not seen The Birth of A Nation first, which was astounding for its scale. Not to say that it's better, more that I knew what I was getting into the second time around! I guess this is where the personal mixes with the objective for me.

I liked The Element of Crime, but I think I prefer, overall, von Trier's more large-scale films, if that makes sense? I love Dancer in the Dark, for instance, as well. I have a copy of Melancholia waiting to be played soon, actually.

Well, I did list my favorite Pasolini already, but I always will have a soft spot for La Ricotta and the somewhat more obscure short Pier Paolo Pasolini and the Form of the City (even though it was technically directed by someone else, he's still the star). Everything he does is great, but if I had to pick least favorites, I would probably point to the two Greek tragedies (to be fair, though, I only saw them when I streamed them in really poor quality---I have the new Criterion boxset, so hopefully that will give me a better impression).

Thoughts on Argento's Opera? Easily my second favorite by him.

I am still working my way through Bresson. Pickpocket didn't wow me when I saw it, I started to get a feel for him with L'Arget, and then A Man Escaped made me a great admirer.

I don't know how I feel about Oshima's New Wave films (though I thought Japanese Summer: Double Suicide was an insane masterwork), but that is probably more of my problem for not knowing enough of the film grammar used by the New Wave. I really like his early neo-realist films, all the way back to his debut (?) Street of Love and Hope. Personally, I think he is at his best when filming in color. Max My Love being the weird exception that I don't know how to feel about.

Yes! I have seen Mishima's film (with a later, incorrect soundtrack, though. Both the movie itself and the story it is based on are great. Have you seen Mishima's photobooks? If you liked Patriotism, then the new The Death of A Man is 100% worth picking up.

For music? I was late to the game with Profanatica, but I saw them live last week and they were fantastic. Super base heavy black metal in the good old American tradition. The The Grand Masters Session/Sickened By the Holy Host comp is great. For noise/other weirder stuff, I have been recently spending some time getting into Current 93 (Lucifer Over London is amazing) and Nurse with Wound.

Thank you! I see some things I have been meaning to watch for a while on there.

Good, but Argento has many better films.
Interesting, I never thought about it this way. But I infamously like all black'n'white Fords and dislike his color films. :P Of course, I've watched exceptions to that "rule" ever since, but I guess I understand your idea. But then again, you name his black'n'white film a masterwork, so...
Thanks or the rec. ^^

Do you have an RYM/Letterboxd account?

Kewl. Quite good taste. Needs more Masonna, though.

Yeah, with the color I can't keep it a hard and fast rule. But I like both his earlier color work (The Sun's Burial) as well as later ones like In the Realm of the Senses, Empire of Passion, and The Ceremony.

Unfortunately I do not have a RYM, and while I do have a Letterboxd account I have never really used the site/figured out what it is actually for. I am very active on other forums for noise and black metal music, however.

Masonna---yes good catch there. haha I (at least I like to think so) a good collection of Merzbow and one nice The Gerogerigegege tape, as well as some random stuff in splits/comps, but no Masonna. I have only really gotten into his work as Controlled Death. I have definitely been eyeing those reissues of his early stuff my Urashima though...

Here's a belated hello. I too am trying to expand my horizons and watch a variety of films for a well rounded experience. The lists here are very helpful in matching you to what you'd like to see and helping you avoid wasting your money on garbage.

I couldn’t keep track of movies reviewed in The NY Times that were in theaters & not available for streaming. I would read the review & never come across the movie again.

People here told me about Letterboxd & it works perfectly for me. I put the movie in Letterboxd and, when it’s available for streaming, they tell me.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

So Letterboxd will automatically notify you for when something becomes available for streaming somewhere?

Hello and welcome!

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It will either tell me it’s still in theaters if it’s relatively new or that it’s available for streaming.

You have to pay $20 annually for this & it’s well worth it. I have 176 movies in my Letterboxd profile.

That's pretty cool! Especially since it can be so easy to forget about films or following up on these things manually.

Exactly! So many movie write-ups for movies in theaters & then instantly forgotten unless the Times happens to mention them again.

I probably get an email from Letterboxd every day telling me a movie in my profile is now available for streaming.

I will have to look into it again then!